Welcome to NASIOC - The world's largest online community for Subaru enthusiasts!

Welcome to the NASIOC.com Subaru forum.

You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our community, free of charge, you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is free, fast and simple, so please join our community today!

If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

just a heads up. at this very moment my friends & I are working on installing a few goodies into our friends brand new 2008 WRX wagon. after a solid hour of sheer frustration, we are over the hedge in figuring out how to remove the dash & radio to install aftermarket equipment. we are taking pictures & making notes as we go. We will post up pics, wire color codes, and tips when we finish the install this evening.

just a quick note though - the GE chassis is NOT as easy to work on interior wise as the chassis before it.

Fred

Edit: the work is finished but we realized we didnt take pictures of a few key things so we are getting them now & will have all the info up soon. but for now - here are the wire codes for the radio harness.

I'll be doing this next month in an 08 STi so any pics, tips, and tricks you guys have will be very helpful!

I'll be installing a single DIN head unit and a pocket right above it, and later this year replacing the pocket with a single DIN 42 Draft Designs triple gauge pod above the head unit for a nice "factory" look. I'll probably have to custom fit the gaige pod, but that won't be too difficult.

OK, the wire guide looks good to go, I'm assuming you are not using a specific built wiring harness adapter. What about a bracket for fitting it in the dash? are you using last years version? the factory radio (I have a base model) looks wider than a din size. I made a profile just to pay attention to this post, so thanks for the help!
~Ben

ist thing to to is remove the side panel to access the corner of the dash trim:

once that is removed, you can grab the edge of the dash trim piece:

from here, you can pull on the edge of the trim piece & air vent & the clips will start to pop off:

here is where is gets tricky: the way the trim piece clips in, you have to pull very carefully to get it off the car. i found pulling up then down got the upper & lower clips off. this was one of the toughest parts.

in this pic, you can see the slots that the tabs from the trim piece fits into:

what sucks is that the bezel that surrounds the radio can be removed without getting this mazzive trim piece off, but the clips are soooo tight, and there is no place to get a grip on the bexel piece to remove it by itself.

The connector has two rows of 9 smaller pins, plus two larger pins on the far left and right sides.

It's physically the same as the one on the 2007 Nisson Maxima and Versa, although the pin assignments may be different. [UPDATED:] Most of the pin assignments are the same. I already know that Metra's aftermarket harnesses for the Nissan (into car: 70-7552, and into radio or reverse: 71-7552) do not include wires for ground or illumination.

UPDATED: According to Subaru's wiring diagram, the car's harness has two pins for illumination and dimmer, just like on the 14-pin harness in older/other years/models. The new harness also has the two wires for "satellite switches" (remote control buttons on the steering wheel), and adds two wires for CAN bus. 18 wires total.

Actually, the navigation unit uses the older style audio/power connector for the sound/power but adds a connector that gets more info from the car, including, yes, the emergency/parking brake grounding signal. I have done a write-up on my experience defeating the while moving DVD / Navigation lock-out and you can find it here:http://www.webjogger.com/WRX/2008WRX/08wrxnav.htm

[UPDATED:] Most of the pin assignments are the same. I already know that Metra's aftermarket harnesses for the Nissan (into car: 70-7552, and into radio or reverse: 71-7552) do not include wires for ground or illumination.

[UPDATED:] According to Subaru's wiring diagram, the car's harness has two pins for illumination and dimmer, just like on the 14-pin harness in older/other years/models. The new harness also has the two wires for "satellite switches" (remote control buttons on the steering wheel), and adds two wires for CAN bus.

Just wanted to share some info on installing a Pioneer AVIC-F900BT GPS/DVD in my 2008 Impreza WRX (non-nav). It took a fair amount of searching for these detail so I hope it save some trouble for others:

Connections:

Antenna - just plug in the factory plug into the back of the deck, no adaptor needed.

yellow/black (upper row left on the second harness - the one with all the RCA plugs) = Audio Mute (if you move the pin in this connector to the empty space on the lower row 4th space from left and then ground this wire (and the light green parking break wire) you will have the ability to use all functions while in motion. Of course none of you would do this in an Impreza but you could.

I am getting an 09 WRX with the standard 4 speaker stereo.
Can anybody tell me if the vehicle is pre-wired for all of the 10 speaker locations even though only 4 speakers are utilized in the base system.

I am getting an 09 WRX with the standard 4 speaker stereo.
Can anybody tell me if the vehicle is pre-wired for all of the 10 speaker locations even though only 4 speakers are utilized in the base system.

It would save me a lot of work running wires if this is the case.

there isnt really 10 speaker...

there is 4 speaker, one in each doors, and 6 tweeters:
two next to the pillars and one with each of the 4 speakers, fitted with a bracket in the middle.. looks like a coaxial speakers...
so saying it got 10 speakers is pretty much BS